Textile operation



Nov. 14, 1933. s. M. FULTON TEXTILE OPERATION med July 1, 1932 Patented Nov. 14, 1933 TEXTILE OPERATION Stephen Miller Fulton, Spondon, 4near Derby,

England, assignor to Celanese Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware Applicatien July 1, 1932, Serial No.. 620,390, and in Great Britain August 24, 1931 12 Claims. (Cl. 117-23) This invention relates to textile operations, and in particular to the production of wound pirns, bottle bobbins and like packages of twisted thread, the object of the invention being to enable such operations to be carried out rapidly and in the most expeditious manner. The invention is particularly applicable to the production of pirns, bottle bobbins and like packages of twisted yarn from artificial yarns containing little or no twist.

According to the invention twist isapplied to the yarn by means of a device which applies more than one turn of twist for each revolution applied to the device, and the thus twisted yarn is led directly to a winding device which winds it into a. pirn, bottle bobbin or like package. The' additional twist is obtained by causing the yarn leaving the delivery package to f-orm a loop which is rotated bodily round the package. In order to'ensure that theyarn is uniformly twisted, a compensating device the type described in U. S. application S. No. 526,582 filed March 31st, 1931 may be employed to engage the yarn between the twisting and winding devices so as to provide a constant rate of draw-oil from the twisting device notwithstanding the variable rate of take-up resulting from the conical form of the surface on which the yarn is wound in the twisting device.

Conveniently the twisting device is of the type in which two twisting turns are applied to the yarn for each applied revolution of maintaining the package stationary while the loop of yarn leaving the package rotates about the package at the applied rate of revol1ition.

The twisting spindle may be arranged for the rotation of its moving parts to take place about a horizontal axis, any sui able means being used to hold the package stationary. For example c the package may be mounted on a' weighted cradle having its central gravity below the axis of the spindle.l Alternatively or in addition the package itself may have its central gravity below the axis of. the spindle for the same purpose.

It is,y however, morev convenient to employ spindles having vertical axes, since such arrangements provide more'compact mechanism land one in which the yarn canbemore readily handled. 'Further,\with the `use of vertical spindles the package may be mounted ccncentrically with the spindle, this allowing the use of delivery packages of large diameter while *keeping the dimensions of the twisting spindles down to small proportions In order to hold the package stationary when may be.

using a vertical twisting spindle, -any suitable gearing or other device may be employed, a simple form of mechanism for this purpose being described in U. S. application S. No. 571,971 led October 30th, 1931. According to this speciflca- 60 tion, arotating member'of the. spindle carries.r one or more pairs of friction rollers free to rotate with respect to-'the rotating member, and carried round bodily, so that one rollerengages a race secured to a iixed part of thelmechanism. while the other roller rolls round a race carried by or formed in the package support. The rst roller is driven as it is carried round its race and so drives the other roller, which in turn maintains the package support stationary. By loosely mounting the axles of the friction rollers withinthe rotating member of the spindle, firm engagement of the rollers with their races -is provided by the action of centrifugal force, this securing that even heavy packages are held sta- .tionary with the minimum consumption of power.

The thread is withdrawn from the package over one end thereof and is carried through the centre o f the package to a passage extending outwards from the rotating member` of the spindle. On emergence from this passage the thread passes either through a hollow iiyer or through the open air in the form of a balloon to a guide situated above the package and substantially in a line with the axis of the spindle.

In order kto secure uniform unwinding of the thread from the package, a tensioning device of the type described in U. -S. application S. No.. 618,454 led June 2-1, 1932 correspondingto British application No. 23496/31 filed August 20th, 1931 may be employed, this device consisting of a guide member movable in a substantially radial direction under spring action against the tension of the thread as the thread proceeds from the package to the edge of a guiding disc mounted preferably rotatably above the package, or to a f guide eye rotatably mounted above the package. Should any variation in the tension of the thread occur, as by uneven tightness of the turns of the varying height thread on .the,package, or by at which the thread leaves the'surface ofthe package, the tension member moves substantially radially to take up or vgive .out slack as'thecase After leaving thev guide eye situated besubstantially inline with the axis ofthe 10i thread proceeds to a pirning, bottle or like apparatus in whichitf is yond and package, the bobbin, winding i chased at the conical surface of the package.

1- The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying draw- 11| ing, but it is to be understood that this description is given by way of illustration only and is in no respect limitative.

The ligure in the accompanying drawing presents an end elevation of a machine for carrying out the invention.

Bobbins 2 are mounted on a double twist spindie of the type described in U. S. application S. No. 571,971 referred to above. The spindle comprises a whorl 3 driven .by a belt 4 from a driving drum 5, and suitable gearing means enclosed in the casing 6 for maintaining the bobbin 2 stationary. The thread 7 is drawn from-the bobbin 2 over the edge of a brass cap 8 xed to the top of the bobbin, through a spring loaded guide eye 9, over the edge of a disc 10 and down a hollow spindle 11 iixed into thel top of the bobbin. The cap 8, spring loaded guide eye 9 and disc 10 constitute a tension device for the thread, to eliminate unevenness in the unwinding of the thread 7 from the bobbin 2. The thread 7 passes down the centre of the package 2 and emerges from a horizontal passage in the rotating part 12 of the spindle, proceeding in the form of a balloon 13 to a centrally disposed guide eye 14. 'Ihe bobbin 2 remains stationary as described in U. S. application S. No. 571,971 while the balloon 13 rotates rapidly round it, with the result that two turns of twist are imparted to the thread for each revolution of the rotating part of the spindle 12. Leaving the guide eye 14 the thread passes over and under a pair of tension rolls 15 and upwardly to a pirn 16 on which it is to be wound. On its way from the rolls 15 to the pirn 16 the thread passes through a compensating device, referred to hereafter, of the kind described in U. S. application S. No. 526,582. The pirn 16 is mounted on a spindle 17 and is rotated at constant speed from a gear box 18. The thread 7 is led on to the surface of the pirn through guides 19 and 20 which are traversedby chasing mechanisms of a known kind, and at the same time move in slow progression along the length of the pirn 16 by the rotation of the screw 22 on which they are mounted.

It will be seen that, on account of the' varying diameter of the base of the pirn 16, the rate at which the thread is collected will vary. In order that this variation may not be communicated to the rate of draw-off from the bobbin 2, thereby giving rise to a variation in the degree of twist imparted to the thread, a compensating device is included between the rollers 15 and the pim 16. This device comprises a pair of small rollers 25 mounted on a vertically depending bracket 26 and a third roller 27 mounted on the end of a reciprocating rod 28. The thread passes in -the form of a loop 37 round the three rollers. The rod 28 is pivoted to a lever 29 which is caused to oscillate by means of an eccentric cam 30 working on a cam bowl 31 mounted 'on the lever 29. The cam 30 rotates upon a shaft 33 driven by a chain sprocket 34 which is in turn rotated through a chain 35 by a chain sprocket 36 on the main shaft 39 of the machine. The rotation of the cam 30 is synchronized with the chase of the guide members 19, 20, that is, with their motion to and fro along the conical part of the pim 16. These two motions, however, are out of phase, the oscillation of the roller 27 lagging by 90 behind that of the guides 19, 20. In this manner, while the guides 19, 20 are moving from the mid-point of the cone towards the narrow end land back to the mid-point the roller 27 is being moved outwardly and is causing the thread to be drawn from the bobbin 2 more rapidly than would otherwise be the case. While the guides 19, 20 are moving from the mid-point of the cam to the base and back to the mid-point, that is while they would be drawing thread at a faster rate, the roller 27 is moving from its outer-most position to its inner-most position, giving up the loop of thread 37, so that the rate of draw-01T from the bobbin 2 is not greater than the average rate of draw-off throughout the chasing movement of the guides 19, 20. In this manner the thread is drawn at a constant rate from the bobbin 2 and delivered at a Variable rate to the pirn 16 in accordance with the diameter upon which the thread is being wound.

The whole machine comprises a frame 40 on which are disposed two long series of bobbins 2 along the length of the machine, one set of bobbins being to the right and the other to the left, and both series vsharing acommon drive from the main shaft 39. Similarly the two series of pirns are provided driven from a common gear box 18. The compensator mechanisms 25-29 are also reduplicated, and each pair of mechanisms on opposite sides of the machine share common actuating cams 30 mounted on the common shaft 33. It will be seen that the winding mechanism and compensating mechanism on the left hand side of the machine arev 180 out of phase with those on the right hand side of the machine, since the bowls 31 on the left and right hand levers 29 work on opposite sides of the cam 30. The cam bowls 31 are maintained in engagement with the cam 30 by means of a spring 38 connecting the two levers 29.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:-

1. Apparatus for the production of pirns, bottle-bobbins or like packages of twisted yarn, said apparatus comprising a device adapted to 115 impart more than one turn or twist to yarn drawn from a delivery package for each revolution applied to the device, means for traversing the yarn so twisted on to a yarn support having a conical end, means for rotating the support so as to withdraw the yarn from the delivery package and to collect it on the support, and compensating means driven in synchronism with said traversing means adapted to ensure a constant rate of withdrawal of yarn from the delivery package, so that twist is inserted uniformly along the whole length of the yarn.

2. Apparatus for the production of pirns, bottle-bobbins or like packages of twisted yarn, said apparatus comprising a device adapted to 130 impart more than one turn of twist to yarn drawn from a delivery package for each revolution applied to the device, means for traversing the yarn so twisted on io a yarn support having a conical end, means for rotating the support so 135 as to withdraw the yarn from the delivery package and to collect it on the support, and a com'- pensating device driven in synchronism with the traversing means, through which the yarn is caused to pass between the twisting device and 140 the yarn winding means, said compensating device being adapted to cause the yarn to be drawn at a substantially constant rate from the twisting device notwithstanding the varying rate at which the yarn is wound on to the conical-ended sup- 145 port. 

